‘I would rather do interviews,’ McNab said.

‘Better to know as much as we can about what went on back then before we do.’

Janice was right, McNab knew that. Getting as much info as possible before meeting those still alive was the sensible way to go.

Never the big reader, McNab now looked at the filled screen with a degree of trepidation. He would, he realized, much rather have had Janice give him a summary of the leading points. He was planning to say as much, but she’d swivelled back to her own monitor before he could suggest such a thing, announcing that she was on to notebook three and keen to get back to it.

It’s funny, McNab thought as he began to read, how much you can hear an author’s voice in your head when you read his words. In McCreadie’s case, McNab could also see him in his mind’s eye saying the words in front of him now.

He wasn’t a book fan, but if he was, McNab decided, he would never want to meet an author in person, even if he did enjoy their books. But hey, in McCreadie’s case, he already had, and every word he read would likely be coloured by that meeting, never mind his opinion of the man who’d written them.

Yet McNab was surprised to find that, after the first few sentences, things changed. Perhaps it was because of his own obsession with the case, but he found McCreadie’s personal take on what was happening back then compelling, in particular the fact that he’d opened with his notes on Mary’s friend, Karen Marshall.

The child, Karen, is terrified. Of me. Of everything that is happening around her. She’s stopped talking about how much Mary loved her dress. How her friend was happy. Now she says nothing. I think she’s blotting out something from her memory. Something too terrible to contemplate, let alone say out loud.

McNab thought back to what McCreadie had said when they’d met, which pretty well mirrored his thoughts on Karen all those years ago.

He read on.

Karen’s family –

Her father, a DC (who I don’t know personally but apparently he’s sound enough), maintains his youngest daughter has always been quiet. Liz (the mother) is inclined to mollycoddle her, being a late baby. Mary, her pal, is the opposite. More grown up and worldly wise. Probably because of her family who are a bit wild. The mother doesn’t approve of Mary as a friend for Karen. The father allows it.

The mother is nervous, fearing if Mary can be taken so can Karen. She is disapproving of Mary. She doesn’t come from a good home, she says. The father hits his children. Karen was innocent before she became pally with Mary. Mary is old beyond her years. When I asked what she meant by that, she flushed and told me to ask Mary’s mother. I wondered if Mary might have already had her period, or that she knew more about sex than Karen?